Texas assistant football coach Major Applewhite works without a contract

Feb. 2, 2013
|

Texas offensive coordinator Major Applewhite acknowledged Friday night that he was disciplined by the university for an inappropriate relationship with a student during the Longhorns' trip to play in the Fiesta Bowl after the 2008 season. / Brett Davis, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz and Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz and Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

If the University of Texas wishes to fire assistant coach Major Applewhite in the wake of his admission of an affair with a student during the 2009 Fiesta Bowl week, it might not be a difficult process.

Texas football assistant coaches work without contracts. That appears to make their dismissals subject to a university-wide policy giving wide latitude to administrators overseeing employees who do not have a fixed employment term.

Texas' Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Manual, as posted on the Texas athletics website, says in its section on personnel matters that discipline and dismissal of employees is governed by the university's Handbook of Operating Procedures.

The handbook's Policies and Procedures for Discipline and Dismissal and Grievances of Employees states that those policies and procedures do not apply to dismissal of employees "who are appointed to positions without fixed term and under applicable rule or regulation serve at the pleasure of a specific administrative officer."

Though some college football programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision do not put their assistants under contract, it is much less common among programs as big as Texas, where football is a major reason the university has built the largest athletic budget in the United States. The only exception to this since 2009, when USA TODAY Sports began tracking assistant coach contracts, was Will Muschamp, when the Longhorns were paying him $900,000 as the defensive coordinator and they had designated him as Mack Brown's successor.

Texas Tech is an example of a school where four of nine assistants did not have contracts last season (though the Red Raiders' offensive and defensive coordinators did).

Applewhite admitted to the affair Friday night. According to a letter from Applewhite's personnel file provided to USA TODAY Sports, athletics director DeLoss Dodds and Applewhite met about the Fiesta Bowl incident on Jan. 30, 2009, and Applewhite was given until two weeks following Feb. 5 of that year to begin meeting with a counselor.

Dodds wrote that in the wake of Applewhite's "inappropriate" conduct in Arizona, Applewhite's salary would be frozen until Jan. 1, 2010, the letter of reprimand would be placed in his personnel file, and that "any misconduct on your part in the future will result in more serious consequences."

The university's Board of Trustees scheduled a special emergency telelphonic meeting for Sunday afternoon. On the agenda are discussions of legal issues related to "individual athletics personnel" and "inappropriate relationships between employees and students."

Following the 2010 season, when Texas went 5-7 and head coach Mack Brown overhauled the coaching staff â?? including the resignation of offensive coordinator Greg Davis â?? Applewhite was promoted to co-offensive coordinator with new hire Bryan Harsin, who became the play-caller (Harsin was making $625,000 to Applewhite's $501,000).

For the 2012 season, he remained co-offensive coordinator with Harsin (who was making $700,000 to Applewhite's $575,000) and also worked with the running backs; Harsin was the play-caller and worked with the quarterbacks. When Harsin left to become Arkansas State's head coach in December, Applewhite was given the play-caller and quarterbacks coaching role (Applewhite called the plays in the 2012 Alamo Bowl).

Applewhite remains co-offensive coordinator, now with Darrell Wyatt, who also works with the wide receivers. New hire Larry Porter is now the running backs coach.

You will automatically receive the VisaliaTimesDelta.com Top 5 daily email newsletter. If you don't want to receive this newsletter, you can change your newsletter selections in your account preferences.